IMWAYR: Same and Different

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

I ended up handing 1968 and Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year to colleagues this week, but wow! Such amazing books! Since I was born in 1968, it was interesting to read about all the happenings that year (besides my birth – LOL!). Our school’s TOTY is a top 10 finalist for Indiana now, and we are so happy for her!

This week I’m reading some more of the same…great books! Oh, HAPPY EARTH DAY! Amil and the After is a reread for me, and doesn’t have to do with Earth Day, but I love it! (Have you read The Night Diary yet?) The picture books are new to me and I shared them today at school. Fox is particularly haunting, but necessary for nature to move along.

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: Testing Week, In Between

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

It’s state testing week, so I’m reading in between tasks and unpacking the new house. I got a special delivery from First Book at school with some wonderful titles. I’m still catching up from last week’s reading, too.

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: New Space, New Books

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

We moved! I love my new spaces: the great room, the guest bedroom, the office I’m sitting in now…all of it! New spaces brought new books (to me) this week.

Libro.fm: I’m listening more now while I clean and unpack. These two wonderful books are not long, but they are wonderful and written by my friends. Louder Than Hunger by John Schu, narrated by Jeff Ebner and John Schu is a much needed title for our middle grade school library, with a fictional character based on a real life story. (I love “based on a true story” books!) Glenn Burke, Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High Five is a new picture book from Phil Bildner, read by Torian Brackett. I love that the Glenn Burke story is now a picture book to go along with A High Five For Glenn Burke (2019), also by the author. I love both these titles!

Physical Books: New-to-me books include graphic novels I received from Publisher Spotlight (Thank you!) and I cannot believe I hadn’t heard of these before. They are going to the library as soon as possible.

One more graphic novel I borrowed from the school library — I’ve had it on my list for a while. I loved Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan.

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: Read, Then Write

I’m participating in the Slice of Life March Challenge, as you can see, so I haven’t read much this past week. I really like the ideas from Caffeine for the Creative Mind by Stefan Mamaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield, published in 2006 by HOW Books.

I read the latest HGTV Home Magazine last night, looking for ideas for my new home. I also started Sona and the Golden Beasts by Rajani LaRocca. I love everything she writes!

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

IMWAYR: More February Book Love

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

February is LOVE READING month, for me anyway. There are so many great books out there right now! In children’s literature last week and this week, titles include…

Mille by McCall Hoyle (author of Stella and Just Gus): You’re going to LOVE Mille! McCall Hoyle gives a street dog another chance. A border terrier and a young human, Tori, train to work through abandonment issues and find forever families. I love that the author once again brings the reader into the dog training world, showing humans that empathy and understanding go a long way for everyone involved.

What Makes Us Human? by Victor D.O. Santos and Anna Forlati is already a global hit – coming to the USA in March! This is a riddle: What makes us human? Read and find out! Amazing book brought to readers by UNESCO and Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Dan Gemeinhart continues to amaze audiences with his newest, Coyote, Lost and Found. I downloaded this on NetGalley and I’m glad I did. I cannot really explain why you MUST add this to your shelves when it comes out next week, but it is a needed sequel. (Need some tissues for this one, though.)

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: February Fun

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

Another busy weekend and a full schedule this week will keep me from my beloved books, but I’m determined to make some time to finish Unstuck by Barbara Dee and to read Amulet #9: Waverider by Kazu Kibuishi before I hand it off to my students (perks of being the librarian who bought the book – I get to read it first). I finally picked up my order at Brain Lair Books and read the lovely picture book by Melanie Conklin, When You Have to Wait. I needed that one! I’ve been waiting for some things to happen in my life, and I got the message — slow down and enjoy the wait time.

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: A Busy Week!

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

I have many personal and professional projects this week, so I won’t have much time for reading. BUT…just in time for the new week…I received Barbara Dee’s upcoming novel, Unstuck. I’m opening it right after I write this post. Thank you, Barbara, for the book mail!

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: Pura Belpré Honors

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

What a day! The #ALAYMA (ALA Youth Media Awards) were revealed today in Baltimore after #LibLearnX. We watched the announcements on the webcast — a fantastic celebration of books, authors, illustrators, committees, and readers! I was happy to see many of my friends receive awards. I learned a lot about titles I haven’t checked out yet and created a list of books I still need to order for the library (which is fine, because they’ll come with the shiny stickers now!). Congratulations to all the winners!

I already read Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez, and I pulled Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango out of the library to read this week. Both titles won Pura Belpré Honors today and I’m so excited to start the next book by Ms. Arango because I liked Iveliz Explains It All so much.

As I was scrolling through all the social media posts about the book awards, I came across a couple of images that are my favorites of the day’s celebrations. I hope the authors don’t mind me sharing their posts here. Congratulations, Vashti Harrison (author/illustrator of Big) and Abdi Nazemian (author of Only This Beautiful Moment)!

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: Winter Weather Reading

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reads from this week!

The good news about snow days is that I have more time for reading and writing. The winter blast came quickly and I had a long weekend AND I’ll have tomorrow to continue. I finished Keeping Pace and Iveliz Explains It All. I have many picture books out, including My Powerful Hair, Moving Forward, and An American Story, and of course, Martin’s Big Words for remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

This week’s physical books are Secret of the Moon Conch by David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall (A time-travel/Aztec love story – I’m so excited to finally open this one!) and The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh (which I MUST read before the Youth Media book awards on January 22nd, so my friends say).

Libro.fm and NetGalley: I’m still listening to The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum by Lisa Yee and Dan Santat. It’s fabulous! I love these characters!

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

CHANGE: A New Year’s Poem

CHANGE by Jennifer

01/12/2024

CHANGE: As the weather is

CHANGING to cold

there’s a CHANGE in my spirit, which I hold

dear

I prayed for these CHANGES,

Now embracing the chance

to start again – quickly! I advance

from here…

Onward towards CHANGE

Stressed and excited

“What did I do?” Now I’m invited, 

“Come near!”

Embrace the CHANGES –

I can’t go back now.

Happy New Year brings CHANGES

I must find out:  “How

will these CHANGING paths lead me?” Are the roads foggy or

clear?

Time to CHANGE!